Sometimes I sit down in the evening and have every intention of doing nothing other than staring into space or aimlessly watching the telly box and here I must say how much I'm enjoying Beyond Paradise even if it is set in the wrong county.
I know I have gone on about this but I may have a few new bloggettes since I mentioned it previously. The programme is allegedly about a Devon seaside resort but is actually filmed in the Cornish resort of Looe. Anyway last week's episode about a family that went missing in the middle of their evening meal was extremely well written and original. The writers have set the bar high. The vitally important thing about drama is making the listener/viewer identify with the characters and the location and feel that they want to be part of the place and the people there and this drama does that in the same way that the brilliant Doc Martin did.
But I can't tarry on this subject and have to move on. So there I am sitting on the settee and starting to watch Mastermind when I pick up the laptop and start working on some project or other. Just an aside. Why do people with relatively little knowledge enter things like Mastermind when they know they have little chance of Winning? Monday's edition had three good contestants who scored something like 29, 28 and 24 and then a fourth who scored 12. Just which part of her thought she could win or perhaps she just wanted to go on the show for the experience. But sitting on the settee I realised I had lots to do. There's a poster to design for the Friends of Hethersett Library's next presentation in April, there's a talk to prepare for the Rheumatoid Arthritis group that I'm giving in a couple of weeks' time - something I was asked to do months ago and now find the time creeping up so fast. Then there's a history fair at Roydon near Diss to prepare for as I will be representing the Norfolk Family History Society along with our chairman and cousin Belinda.
But no I don't do any of those things because I have a BB - butterfly brain. So I turn to my personal website which needs a considerable amount of work on and I start to read through my family history section which I haven't done anything towards for a long time.
I have to admit that I become engrossed in this and put off work on two publications - Hethersett Herald and Good News that will now have to wait until tomorrow.
At times I read stuff I've written months or years ago and get one of those "did I really write that" feelings. I enjoyed going through the family stuff again, making a few alterations and adding new information like ancestors who started a major shopping line in Australia and who have a pier in Brisbane named after them and also more details of the French actress who married the brother of the Duke of Wellington and had an illegitimate son who was adopted by a couple in Great Yarmouth and who married my 4x great aunt.
I am intrigued by this man and his family. How did he come to be born in Yarmouth, how did he meet my ancestor, what was the actress really like etc etc?
It was said that the actress Gabrielle Roland regularly played the Palais Royale in Paris. She eventually married Wellesley thus making an honest man of him. But that didn't last long as he had a whole string of mistresses and a number of other illegitimate offspring. Wellesley and Gabrielle Roland moved to England where it is alleged she made little effort to learn English and was rather shunned by society.
Her legitimate children were referred to as parasites but there is another part to this story that I have just uncovered. Gabrielle died in Staffordshire. Now shunned by Wellesley, she was living with her daughter and son in law who was an MP. In the local church is a commemoration stone paid for by her children who must have held her in high regard. A picture of her and the stone are included here. You will see that she was a buxom lass.
I am preparing my story the above for inclusion in one of a number of books I'm aiming to self publish this year - another very time consuming task. I'm not sure what order they will appear in and I need to learn more about self publishing before I go ahead but it's still a project I find exciting. Some of them are as follows:
Hell in Paradise - the massacre of 97 British troops in the small French village of Le Paradis in 1940. Originally this book was accepted for publication but the publishers subsequently pulled out although I have an email from them stating how excited they were about the book. That's before they pulled the plug. I have to admit their change of heart disappointed me and made me angry and wasn't very professional on their part. This book will be brought out under the banner of the Le Paradis Commemoration Group of which I am one quarter. My other threequarters in this project are Nick, Dennis and John.
The narrative for this project is written and myself and John will be getting together shortly to source photographs.
The second book will be my own autobiography which is written but which needs editing - something I have been putting off doing for a while although I have no idea why. I'm calling it "A Charmed Life" after the song of the same name by one of my favourite groups Divine Comedy. I was really struggling for a title until I was listening to some of my favourite music and this song came on and seemed appropriate for my book's title. The book will be full of little very ordinary anecdotes and written in a chatty style similar to my blogs. I hope that somewhere there is someone who would like to buy a copy as any proceeds from any of my books will go to charity. Proceeds from Hell in Paradise will go to the commemoration group to keep the names of those who died in the massacre alive. Proceeds from the other books will go to a charity which I haven't yet decided on.
Another book in the pipeline will be edited versions of my daily blogs. This could run to two or three volumes with volume one covering much of lockdown. As you all know I have a tendency to waffle, so a lot of editing may be necessary. I feel that my blogs have changed over time. To start with they were a reflection of lockdown and what was happening and providing photographs and descriptions of walks for residents unable to get out themselves.
Another book will be on Hethersett and may well be based on the first world war writings of the then rector of the village Frederic Jarvis who served on the western front and sent back monthly letters for the Good News magazine. Most of the material for this book will come from a website I set up many years ago covering the village from 1910 until 1950. It is also likely to include the writings of a later rector during the second world war who continually stated that there would be no conflict because "Mr Hitler is an honourable man."
Frederic Jarvis is a fascinating man for me. He seemed to be an integral part of Hethersett until he went off to war and it's obvious from reading his letters that they were heavily censored and he had to watch what he was writing. I am very proud to think that I am now editor of the Good News magazine.
I have other book ideas but I think the above will give me plenty to do for at least the rest of this year and then there's the village website to redevelop and lots of work to do for The Friends of Hethersett Library Group and Norfolk Family History Society. I'm certainly not going to be short of things to fill my time.
I am reading a couple of books at present. The first is the latest Thursday Murder Club offering from Richard Osman. I have tried three times to read the first in this series and gave up on each occasion. So I thought I would give number three a go and once again I'm struggling. The plots seem silly and I cannot identify with or like any of the characters. I expected much better from the author.
My other read is The Jigsaw Man by Paul Britton- a book I had no intention of reading. When I go to Norwich Central Library which I do whenever I'm in the city, I go to a particular shelf which displays new or interesting books. Very often I take two or three and have a sit and read a few pages before deciding whether to take them out.
I had no real intention of taking The Jigsaw Man but it looked shiny and new and so I read a few pages and found it interesting enough to bring home. Britton is a criminal psychologist who has been used in many high profile murder cases to put together offender profiles of murderers, rapists etc. It's not a book for the faint hearted and has lots of graphic details about murders and sexual assaults but I find it intriguing although a lot of the profiling seems to me to be more common sense than an insight into the criminal mind. I remember most of the cases featured quite vividly.
I'm always weary of autobiographical stuff as the writer is often portraying the kind of person he wants us the reader to think he or she is.
My weariness comes from a book by somebody who shall remain nameless but a few bloggettes might be able to work out their identity if they know my previous incarnation. This person wrote a book underlining his love of teamwork and how he cared for his staff and those under him. This person was almost universally disliked. I did a review of this book on my website with the following words - "file under fiction."
So when you read my autobiography you just won't know whether I am telling the truth about myself or simply spinning you a yarn. I hope you feel it's the former.
I told you this blog would be messy. Don't say you weren't warned.